Despite having left Square Enix over ten years ago, Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi still keeps in contact with the developers at his old haunt.

About This Person

Summary

Biography

Hironobu Sakaguchi's career has spanned more than two decades, and in that time has formed two companies, directed a visually groundbreaking (and massive-budgeted) Hollywood movie, and helped create what was supposed to be his last game almost a dozen times. Not bad for a guy who was just going to become an electrical engineer.

Birth Date: Nov 25, 1962

Hironobu Sakaguchi's career has spanned more than two decades, and in that time has formed two companies, directed a visually groundbreaking (and massive-budgeted) Hollywood movie, and helped create what was supposed to be his last game almost a dozen times. Not bad for a guy who was just going to become an electrical engineer.

Sakaguchi formed Square with Masafumi Miyamoto in the early 80s after dropping out of college, though early success was hard to come by. In a last-ditch (and some might say defeated) attempt, the rest of Square's budget was spent creating Final Fantasy, which ended up becoming a massive hit. A string of sequels would establish what should have been Square's final fantasy as one of the most bankable names in video games, though as the sequels continued, Sakaguchi's role at Square would eventually move into more business-oriented territory, though nearly all of Square's games released in the 90s credited him as executive producer.

Future attempts to broaden the franchise beyond games (like the disasterous Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within CG movie) would eventually mean the closure of Square's film departments, and when the company he founded merged with Enix, another Japanese games giant, in 2003, Sakaguchi stepped down, eventually leaving Square to form Mistwalker, which committed to development on the Xbox 360 thanks to financial backing from Microsoft.